quadroon

American  

[kwo-droon] / kwɒˈdrun /

noun

Older Use: Offensive.

1. a person having one-fourth Black ancestry, with one Black grandparent; the offspring of a mulatto and a white person.

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quadroon British  

/ kwɒˈdruːn /

noun

1. the offspring of a Mulatto and a White person; a person who is one-quarter Black

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Etymology

Origin of quadroon

First recorded in 1640–50; alteration of Spanish cuarterón, derivative of cuarto “a fourth,” from Latin quartus; see -oon

Explanation

In the 19th century, the term quadroon was used to describe a person who was one-quarter black and three-quarters white. In other words, a quadroon had one grandparent of African descent. The word quadroon is seen today as being deeply offensive and completely obsolete. In the southern states of the US, particularly before the Civil War, a white person might have used the term to describe someone of mixed race, particularly if the person had one white and one racially mixed parent. The word comes from the Spanish cuarteron, "one who has a fourth," from cuarto, "fourth."

Example Sentences

In Europe, after living at the seashore with the red-haired Swinburne, she took refuge in Paris at the house of that famed, fatherly quadroon, Alexandre Dumas Sr. Her poems, edited by Swinburne, were published, praised.

From Time Magazine Archive

The dream-face drove them out of my mind, and I found myself comparing it with Scipio’s picture of the quadroon.

From The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West by Reid, Mayne

She is the illegitimate daughter of a son of the late Judge Beaucaire, and a slave mother known as Delia, a quadroon woman.

From The Devil's Own A Romance of the Black Hawk War by Parrish, Randall

Harriet Martineau discovered a young white man who on visiting a southern lady became insanely enamored of her intelligent quadroon maid.

From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 by Various

Thus, in a Louisiana Creole song, we find a quadroon mother promising her daughter a charm to prevent the white lover from forsaking her: "Pou tchomb� li na f� grigri."

From Concerning Lafcadio Hearn With a Bibliography by Laura Stedman by Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)